A Review of the Primates [Monograph Series Number 1, complete in three volumes]

New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1912. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. New York, American Museum of Natural History, 1912 [but June 1913]. Quarto, three volumes, [ii] ('Correction', verso blank), cxxvi, [ii] (errata, verso blank), [ii], 318 (last blank), xxxviii pages plus 50 pages of plates (12 in colour, including the frontispiece, with the correct title supplied on a thin strip of paper mounted on the plate and the contents list); [ii] ('Correction', verso blank), xviii, [ii], 382, xxvi pages plus 62 pages of plates (8 in colour); and [ii] ('Correction', verso blank), xiv, [ii], 262, clxviii pages plus a frontispiece, 56 pages of plates (8 in colour), and a memorandum slip tipped in at page 257. Early buckram lettered in gilt on the spine (bound without the original wrappers); covers lightly marked; plates offset; tiny chip to the top margin of one leaf; an excellent set (internally in fine condition). The correction page at the beginning of each volume explains that almost the entire work was printed in 1912, but 'unexpected delay in the preparation of the colour plates prevented the issue of the work until June 15, 1913'. Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915) 'was one of the most important American ornithologists and naturalists of the nineteenth century.... He was a scientific founder of the American Museum of Natural History in 1869, and his personal collection of North American birds included the first specimens accessioned into the Museum. Elliot made numerous trips across the globe for study and collecting, generally being away for multiple years at a time, with his longest absence being a decade. Based on these travels, he published hundreds of papers, including multiple folio-size monographs on groups of mammals and birds.

In his day, few, if any, of his peers had his knowledge and experience with the birds and mammals of the world. Elliot became famous as a monographer of families of birds and mammals. He synthesized previous taxonomic knowledge about the species in each group and added observations and new interpretations based on specimens housed in major museums. Elliot's first love was birds, and he produced large synthetic works on pittas, pheasants, grouse, hummingbirds, and birds of paradise. Along the way he also published a folio-size monograph on cats. In 1894, he moved to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago as its curator in the Department of Zoology, shifting his attention to mammals. After he left that museum in 1906, he spent the next two years traveling in Europe and Asia studying primates, both in collections and in the field. Next, back in New York at the American Museum of Natural History, his investigations eventually culminated in his 1913 three-volume taxonomic monograph "A Review of the Primates"' (American Museum of Natural History website). [3 items].